A lot of critics seem to be up in arms about the fact that they remade a film that is only three years old and was originally in the same language. Having not seen the original, British, Death at a Funeral, I guess I appreciate the effort? At the very least, with the abysmal state of foreign film distribution in the US, I can understand the financial motivation that might cause someone to take a good, under watched film and recast it with mainstream American actors. I mean, at least then it might be possible for some good screenwriting to be discovered by a new audience, right? Theoretically it seems sound, but I also don’t feel like that’s what they were going for here. Death at a Funeral felt to me like a typical case of Hollywood laziness. Take a script that already exists, punch it up with some cheap jokes (this is me assuming the original didn’t contain jokes centered around fecal matter, if it did I apologize to the British for overestimating their stuffiness), and then fill in the blanks with some familiar faces in the lead roles. If what you end up with isn’t a wholly satisfying film going experience; who cares? You’ve put out minimal effort and raked in significant cash. Bravo, you’ve put another nail in the coffin of art. But maybe that’s giving Death at a Funeral a little too much credit, it’s actually not important enough or bad enough to have an effect on anything in quite that profound a manner. When push comes to shove, Death at a Funeral is not much more than a below average, but harmless comedy.
The launching point of the story is the death of the patriarch of a large family. Over the opening credits we see his body loaded into a car and shipped off to the family home, where his service will be held. To summarize the plot much more than this seems like it would be a too complicated procedure, and might potentially ruin the film going experience. This is a gathering film. It brings together characters of varying eccentricities and then sits back while they interact. There is no story, per se; the story is the characters. The success or failure of the film rests largely on whether or not you liked spending time with these characters, and seeing as how this one is pretty close to a straight comedy, whether or not you found it funny. I found the characters here to be rather hit or miss, and the laughs largely lacking. Probably the best way to give a sense of what the film has to offer, and my reactions to the offering, is to just go down the list of major characters and discuss what they brought to the table.
Chris Rock gets the largest focus of the film as Aaron, the oldest son of the deceased. He is the rock of the family, making sure everything is paid for and taken care of. We get a bit of a sense of weariness in him, like perhaps this role is taking its toll. He is an aspiring writer, but is too insecure to let anyone read what progress he’s made on his first book. This is further complicated by the commercial success of his author brother Ryan (Martin Lawrence). Ryan is cocky, irresponsible, and hasn’t been in the family picture for years. Aaron resents the success that he has achieved doing shallow work, and the fact that he is their mother’s (Loretta Devine) favorite, despite the fact that it is Aaron who keeps the family together. Rock isn’t a very good actor, and I didn’t like him in the role. The limits of his range seem to be sighing, grinning, and yelling. He cycles through the three throughout, depending on whether he’s supposed to be angry, frustrated, or happy. When he’s not delivering snark with a half restrained smirk, his dialogue is robotically delivered and awkward. I’ve liked him in smaller roles in the past; the loud mouth, the crack addict, but I haven’t seen anything from him that points to his ability to carry a film as a leading man. Lawrence, on the other hand, I felt performed very well in a shockingly similar role with last years Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins. As I watched the two brothers interact in this film I found myself wishing that their roles had been reversed. I think pulling off arrogant and obnoxious would have been an easier task for Rock to pull off, and Lawrence would have been better suited to crafting a put upon everyman that we can empathize with. Here he is underutilized, as he isn’t given much to do other than play sleazy while hitting on an underage yet buxom family friend.
Zoe Saldana continues her recent career surge by appearing in this as Elaine, the niece of the guest of honor. Tagging along with her is her new boyfriend Oscar (James Marsden). Saldana, more than just being lovely, is also a pretty large talent. She’s not given much to do here other than run around and panic, but she does what she can with the role as it is written. Much of her distress is caused by the fact that Oscar, unwittingly, was given a high grade hallucinogenic before the funeral. As Elaine’s father Duncan (a permanently scowling Ron Glass) strongly disapproves of their relationship already, the consequences are dire when Oscar starts acting nuts in the middle of the service. Marsden shows some real comedic chops in the role. He fully commits to the character, selling the insane behavior at every moment. A lot of the larger laughs to be had in this one come from his hijinx, and I was surprised to see him perform so admirably in a wacky role. Problematically, the couple gets too much screen time and the joke is run into the ground long before it is over. The guy acting nuts because he’s on drugs gag has limited legs, and screenwriter Dean Craig forces it to try and shoulder far too much of the comedic load.
Tracy Morgan and Luke Wilson play a couple of family friends that get roped into picking up the cantankerous family curmudgeon Uncle Russell (Danny Glover). Wilson is a former boyfriend of Saldana’s character, and has seemingly scored an invite to the funeral solely with the intent of winning her back. Morgan is, of course, playing himself; and I don’t even think the filmmakers could tell you who his character is in relation to everyone else or why he is at the funeral in the first place. They should have just went the meta route and had him literally play himself. A lot of comedy could have been mined out of people’s reactions to famous actor Tracy Morgan randomly showing up at a fairly anonymous man’s funeral. Regardless, I’m a fan of what Morgan brings to the table, and he was one of the things that I enjoyed in this one. Wilson’s turn is a strange one. He’s generally so affable and laid back that I can’t help but root for him whenever he pops up in a film. Here, he sticks to those same guns that brought him to the table, but on the page his character comes off as an obsessive creep. I found myself wanting to see him triumph even when he was attempting some pretty shady advances. “Why don’t you want him Zoe?! Is it because his head got fat?!” The film would have been better served if he had gotten out of his comfort zone a little and turned up the sleaze rather than sleepwalking through the role. The Uncle Russell character isn’t defined enough to become a real asset to the film. He’s a pain in the ass, sure, but that’s all we know about him. One moment he’s doling out scathing literary critiques and the next he seems barely competent enough to feed himself. He’s more of a roadblock or foil for the other characters than a character in his own right, and consequently Glover’s formidable screen presence is all but wasted. The poop joke aforementioned in my opening paragraph involves Glover and Morgan’s characters. Normally I don’t bat an eyelash at this sort of gross out humor, and am just kind of annoyed by how cheap and easy it is. But, this one was so extreme that I might go as far as to say that it works? It, at the very least, had me squirming in my seat and averting my eyes as it was going on. Does creating a reaction make it a success, even if that reaction is negative? There’s definitely an interesting discussion that could be had somewhere regarding poop jokes and when they can or cannot be considered art.
Peter Dinklage plays a mysterious funeral guest that none of the other characters recognize. He’s creepy, leering, and the film milk’s a lot of suspense over him making the other characters uncomfortable before it delves into his past and his secrets. To give too much away about who he is would be wrong, but I can reveal that his presence sets forward a series of events that introduces the biggest bits of conflict and tension to the narrative, and eventually leads to a payoff that earns the film its name. Dinklage played the same role in the original Death at a Funeral and as he’s pretty good here I’m going to assume that he was pretty good there as well and the filmmakers didn’t want to mess up a good thing.
The beginning of this film had me. Establishing so many characters and juggling so many disparate plot threads could have proved to be a Herculean task beyond the filmmaker’s capabilities, but the screenwriting and editing here handle the job deftly. Events move at a brisk pace, but never become confusing. Enough time is spent with each character before the focus is taken away to keep you interested without giving away too much. It’s always firmly established where each character is, why they’re there, and how them moving from location to location could intersect with and alter the other ongoing plot threads. I was initially impressed and eagerly awaiting everything and everyone to come together with big fireworks in the film’s climax. Unfortunately, in the second act, the clear focus and well managed pace that defined the first begins to unravel. Instead of those plot threads we’re following slow burning and erupting into craziness like I imagined, they all get crazy early, peak too soon, and stay crazy for far too long. Eventually it all just becomes a white noise of chaos, and by the time the film was wrapping itself up I was completely tuned out.
Along with these dreaded pacing issues, the third act also ushers in some pretty extreme tonal problems. A film that, up to that point, had tried to accomplish little more than shocking and appalling suddenly decides that it’s going to try to tug at our heartstrings. Characters suddenly begin to stop, in the middle of madcap and downright offensive proceedings, and launch into meaningful monologues while the score switches to tender, thoughtful music that lets us know exactly how we’re supposed to be feeling. To say that these moments don’t work would be a gross understatement. They fall so flat on their face that I was downright embarrassed sitting through them. Distant brothers come back together while trying to dispose of a body, couples reunite while naked on a roof, a heartfelt eulogy touches people in a transformational way in the midst of a raucous brawl that was disrespecting the deceased just seconds earlier. Moments like this can’t just be inserted into a script at will; they have to be earned. Characters can’t be aloof and nihilistic for the majority of the film and then turn sentimental on a dime. They have to take a journey to get to that point. There is no journey here. Rarely have I seen plot resolutions and character development handled so clumsily.
Death at a Funeral is a film that tries too much and accomplishes too little. If it had been content with just being a bit of shock comedy, it might not have appeared so inept. By aspiring so late in it’s script to become a deeper character piece it gave itself enough rope to hang itself. There are laughs to be found here, but not enough to call this a successful comedy. There are some decent performances, but not enough to make up for the bad ones. Dig any deeper into this film than that and eventually you hit the sewer line. If you happen to be Tracy Morgan, that might be hilarious enough to give a whirl, but probably it’s an experience you’d be best to avoid. If you felt like you wanted to go see this one and find yourself disappointed after reading this review, I recommend you stay home and seek out the original instead. Chances are it’s probably much better. Or maybe just rent Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins. They’re similar enough to get your crazy black family fix, and that one really is kind of a delight.
